Homeschooling parents fear government backlash to skyrocketing numbers as 40% of new homeschooling parents say they are likely to continue.
Homeschooling families are better at educating their kids than the government, but that doesn’t stop the government from wanting to intervene.
When Covid-19 reached American shores and schools shut down for an unprecedented amount of time, families were thrown into a state of disarray as they tried to work from home, and essential workers scrambled for childcare.
Only one small segment of the population continued their education as normal: homeschoolers.
Prior to 2020, homeschooling families only made up about 3% of the U.S. population. That may not seem like a lot, but homeschooling was already trending, particularly among minorities, and showed no signs of slowing down.
Then the pandemic hit, and the homeschooling numbers skyrocketed. Currently, nearly 10% of school-aged children are being homeschooled. That number does not refer to the children who are distance learning, as kids who are distance learning are still enrolled with their public school district but are learning from home. Thousands of kids are currently distance learning. But 10% of school-aged children are being homeschooled. That number is staggering.
“In November, an Education Week survey found that #homeschooling had swelled to nine percent of the US K-12 school-age population, or nearly five million students. This represents a dramatic jump from pre-pandemic homeschooling levels ." >> https://t.co/sQogKXlk6a
— HSLDA (@HSLDA) January 5, 2021
Up to 40% of families who are new to homeschooling, this school year say that they are strongly considering continuing homeschooling.
Homeschooled Kids Are More Successful than Public Educated Kids
Statistics show that homeschooled students consistently outperform their public educated peers on standardized testing, and they attend and graduate college in higher numbers as well. This success has no correlation with the parent’s education.
Homeschooling is More Cost Efficient than Public Education
Public school education costs the taxpayer around $15,000 per student per year. Most homeschooling parents homeschool for a couple of hundred dollars per student per year, which comes out of their own pockets. This means that on average an uneducated parent can do a better job teaching their own children than the government can do with millions of dollars and a highly educated staff. Homeschoolers have known this for generations, but the rest of the world is about to find this out.
The Government May Intervene Anyway
Homeschooling families are bracing themselves for a government backlash to this. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is prepared for such a backlash, as they have been defending the rights of the homeschooling families for generations.
The U.S. is already one of only a handful of developed countries where homeschooling is legal. And some states have already started adopting stringent laws that place unwarranted demands on homeschooling families.
Public Schools are the Left’s Stomping Grounds
It’s no secret that the left has a strong foothold in the education system, and many homeschooling families are wondering whether the left will panic when they start to realize they are losing their grip on the education system.
Homeschooling parents fear government backlash once they realize just how many kids will not be returning to public school.
Trouble Abrew in Michigan
Homeschooling parents in Michigan are already feeling the heat as the State Superintendent Michael Rice stated his intention to change Michigan’s education laws in order to “distinguish between children who are being homeschooled at the present time and children who aren’t being educated at all.”
This is simply a tricky way of trying to gain access to the homes and privacy of homeschooling families. Statistics have clearly shown that homeschooling families do a better job preparing their kids for success than do the public schools, and yet this superintendent wants to invade these homes to make sure they are educating their children properly.
HSLDA has contacted the superintendent, encouraging him to “focus their attention on public school issues, rather than trying to devise ways to interfere with families who have chosen to homeschool.” This is basically a polite way of saying, “Thanks for your concern, but no thanks. We are doing a great job of educating our own children. You have bigger problems than we do. Go focus on those, and leave us alone.”
Michigan Christian Homeschool Network has also contacted the superintendent, stating: “Parents who have chosen other educational options including homeschooling are free to do so and must be assumed to be using those means to educate their children. Rare is the parent who does not want his child properly educated, and parents are best suited to decide what is in the best educational interest of their particular child. Those who leave the public school must be assumed to be making the best decision for their child.”
Homeschooling families everywhere are hoping that the government will mind their own business and refrain from overreach into their family lives.
If health mandates become law, they will soon be followed by educational mandates. Home schooling will become illegal. The loss of our rights began to show up in mass with the non-terrorist attack of 9-11. The loss of our freedoms is now in high gear. By the time we decide we have had enough, it will likely be to late to stand against what will have become normal life. For instance… the illegal searches at the airport are accepted as normal now, because of a false flag attack. They don’t have our guns yet… but they keep eroding our resistance to that with orchestrated school and mass shootings. Wake up America… we are being backed into a corner. Like the frog in the pot, the water gets a bit hotter every day.